Skating Babies

Because it's cute, dammit...

The Story Behind the Skating Babies : How an Evian Ad on YouTube Went Viral, And the CGI Whizzes Who Made It...


(CBS) According to a Pew survey, more than one out of five adult Americans still don't use the internet. What are they missing? Well, as CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reports, they're missing the skating babies.


It's a simple formula. Take babies. Put 'em on skates. Add music. Watch the internet hits take off.


The latest viral ad sensation has become the talk of the water cooler crowd, which is just as well as it's for a French bottled water company.


Over six million hits since its release last weekend - almost three million in the U.S. alone. It's rolling toward rarified territory, the 20 million-plus hits that only the lucky few viral ads get to...



~

Unnecessary drama, Part III

So if things weren't bad enough, The Dreadful Bear calls me.

"Wow", she says, "This is going to be pretty bad, huh?"

I was apprehensive, since I had just given her phone number to yet another collection agency today - she has a bad habit of using me as a credit reference without my permission. As if we were friends or something.

I give them her current phone number in exchange for leaving me alone. They're still calling, and she's not in jail yet. Damn.

"What do you mean?", I asked.

"The Michael Jackson thing - this is going to be bad, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?", I repeated. It pays to be cautious with the Bear.

"This is going to be all over the news for WEEKS!"

"well, yes, I'm afraid so..." I was looking for an angle to get off the phone at this point.

"There was this lawyer on Nancy Grace, and he was saying..."

"Stop right there. There is nothing on Nancy Grace that I need to hear about."

"I know you hate her..."

"I don't hate her. She's a liar. Everything on her show is a lie," I said.

The Bear tried to walk it back, since she clearly needed someone to talk to. "But it wasn't her, this lawyer was calling in, and..."

"Let me be clear here - anything that anybody says on Nancy Grace's show is either a lie, or will be proven wrong within 48 hours. Anything else?"

"Uh, no..."

"I have things to do - good night."
~

Things Are Looking Up!

Here's some good news:

The Onion: Dept. Of Evil: 'All Of You Must Die' :

WASHINGTON, DC—In the latest in a long series of ominous public pronouncements, the Department of Evil released a statement Monday demanding that all residents of the United States must die.

Dread Secretary of Evil Hammond S. Reynolds told reporters that they, too, must die.

"Yes, all must die," Dread Secretary of Evil Hammond S. Reynolds said during a press conference in Room 1228 of Washington's Robert C. Weaver Federal Building. "There shall soon come an accounting in which all will fall before the Grim Reaper as wheat in winter, as lambs under the knife. Soon all necks will feel the steely bite of our soul- thirsting axe, wielded by the unforgiving iron hand of the Department of Evil. Thus spake I, Dread Secretary Reynolds."

So we have that going for us.
~

Criminal Minds

This is a very sad story.

Timeline of Ireland's Catholic abuse scandals

But the commission said its fact-finding — which included unearthing decades-old church files, chiefly stored in the Vatican, on scores of unreported abuse cases from Ireland's industrial schools — demonstrated that officials understood exactly what was at stake: their own reputations...

"Contrary to the congregations' claims that the recidivist nature of sexual offending was not understood, it is clear from the documented cases that they were aware of the propensity for abusers to re-abuse," it said.

Irish priests beat, raped children: report

I wonder what it would do for our understanding of sexual offenders if we could actually get all of the Vatican's secret files on this and all of the other cases that they have here in the United States and worldwide and codify them into a single database?

I bet we could get profiles out that could spit out the phone numbers of pedophiles.
~

Parasites

Glennzilla comments on MoDo's thievery borrowing:

The myth of the parasitical bloggers - Establishment media outlets claim that others steal their work for free, but the truth is often the opposite...

Yours truly asks him to think of the bloggers! Let us get paid!

A cat may look at a king.
~

They Simply Won't Do It

Sebelius: Industry will keep promise to cut costs :

WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she's confident health industry leaders will make good on their promise to slow the growth of medical care costs...


No, they won't.

There's no profit in it, they simply won't do it, and there is no reason in the world - NONE - why you should think so.

Any plan that includes the insurance companies will FAIL.

It is time for a public health care plan that covers all Americans. THEN talk to them.
~

More than Meets The Eye : Transformers 25th Anniversary

Not counting advertisements, May 8th, 1984 was the first time the general public was made aware of the Transformers franchise. Over the next 25 years, the saga of shape-changing robots: the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, has continued to reach new audiences around the world.

And one of my favorite webcomics, ShortPacked! offers an awesome salute here:

Bearding The Lion In His Den

JurassicPork had a detailed post HERE of President Obama's frankly courageous stand against offshore tax havens, especially since they thought they were buying him off.

NY Times : The top corporate tax rate is 35 percent, but the Treasury Department estimated that in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available, American multinationals paid $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign income — an effective rate of 2.3 percent.


JurassicPork: With the average American paying an average tax rate of 20% or so, why is Joe Sixpack and John Q. Public supposed to feel sorry for corporations who ship jobs overseas and reduce our workforce so they can get around the minimum wage and occupational safety laws when their own average tax rate is 32.7% lower than the maximum?

Exactly so.
~

Not in My Name

DWD at Eschaton lays it out for us:

Listen: One of the reasons I stay away from the news is the lack of understanding that I hear daily.

1. Torture is illegal according to our laws and international agreements.

2. Torture does not work no matter how many times you say it does.

3. There is no defense for knowingly ignoring and breaking our laws.

4. If you broke the law, you must be subject to prosecution.

(And Roger Cohen and the rest: there is not justification for applying a patina of rationalization for these criminals. None whatsoever)

Remember this when phrases like "enhanced interrogation techniques" get tossed around. TORTURE IS WRONG.

Heroes Of The Revolution

Bravo to Sinfonian, who spoke truth to power at a "teabagger rally" in Florida yesterday.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkOwsIIIe5I&feature=player_embedded

Spocko has a lot more to say about it, HERE

And to racymind, who got a write up in the Houston Press for her inspired counter-protest. (I was on the number 85 bus behind her ;) )

You are awesome.
~

Fear of a Black President

Atrios complains: ...The problem is that it was never clear what they were protesting.

And DFH in Dubrovnik answered in comments: All their tax money is being spent by a black guy.

I'm afraid that's all there is to it. And if you can't admit that, it makes no sense at all.

You could explain that most of them got tax relief; they will deny it.

You can explain that this is Bush's debt, and Obama's trying to fix it; they don't want that.

You can explain that Clinton did the exact same thing in 1993 and left office with a surplus; they don't remember that, and they don't believe it.

As we used to say when I was in the Navy - "Fuck 'em if they cant take a joke."
~

Interregnum

I suppose that I SHOULD have mentioned that I was going back to college online and posting was going to be light for a few weeks, as I got up to speed.

Life's just a little harder as a Z-level blogger.

Discussions on "Daybreak, Part 2"

"To me these were flashes of the moments that echoed their respective fates.

Roslin was destined not to find and enjoy love, her calling was a higher one, but a less personally satisfying one.

Same for Starbuck/Apollo -- they had a mutual attraction it was clear, but they had something more important to consider than their own feelings - the fate of all humanity!"

Bravo. And Adama's fate ended with Galactica, which was the choice he made instead of "an hour's work", and Baltar's fate was with Caprica Six, even if it would "get [his] head cut off".

"I don't get the hate for the flashforward. I thought it was an optimistic ending. It all happened before, but it doesn't have to happen again. What's wrong with that?"

I don't get the hate either. A little bit of Terry Pratchett dialog in the two angels chatting and a fun attempt to link their story to our future. The robot montage was funny. Too much drama, people. Leave drama to the professionals.

It was a coda, a wink to the audience. The ep ended with Adama on the hill, looking to the East, the Sunrise, The Future - BLACKOUT. And Moore found himself with an extra two minutes to play with. The wink was implied by the fact that HE STUCK HIMSELF RIGHT THERE.

And any opportunity for an extra shot of Angel!Six in her red dress was not to be missed.

Blind Man's Bluff

The problem that I have with the entire banking system problem is that NOBODY knows what is going on.

There should have been an audit done on the banks before dime one of money was distributed. That there wasn't was fucking criminal. That there isn't one being done anywhere is an ongoing crime.

I doubt that they gave the banks the scrutiny that the banks gave ME back when I was trying to buy a house.

We don't know the value of the assets or the debts, so we can't price them at all and it looks like Geithner's goal is to try to fix the entire problem without disclosing any of it. It's impossible and it's failing.

Pop Muzik in the 21st Century

Pop Muzik by M was on the radio, so I looked it up at Wikipedia (as I always do) and found THIS little gem:



If you can't see the video, follow this link: Lip Dub Pop Muzik from fredasterical on Vimeo.

Just loads of fun - enjoy!


dave™© said...
That's pretty cool... I still love the original, though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FabM1RJTkrY

Crushes: Jaime Pressly

From The Bastardly (comments can be rough over there, for you gentle souls...):
Jaime Pressly @ "I Love You, Man" L.A. Premiere. More pics at the link.

Jaime Pressly - hot as a teenager, hot as a Playboy model, hot as a movie villain, and hot as a pregnant mom-to-be.

She gets more incredible everytime I see her, but these pics are just amazing. Respect.

And then the REAL Fun began...

BREAKING: NYAG Cuomo Subpoenas AIG :

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has issued a subpoena to American International Group Inc. seeking a list with the names of executives receiving bonuses.

"We had given AIG up to 4 o'clock today to provide the information on the latest round of bonuses that they paid out," Cuomo said. "Four o'clock has come and gone."
. . . .
In the letter to AIG's CEO Edward Liddy, Cuomo said he was disturbed to learn over the weekend of AIG's plans to pay millions of dollars to members of the Financial Products subsidiary through it’s Financial Products Retention Plan.


This amuses me. Cuomo may well be an evil asshole (or so I've heard), but he's an evil asshole for Truth and Justice, and we need more of those.

Go get 'em, Andrew.

Imagine Greater Stupidity

So far as I can tell, this is NOT a joke, and it is NOT parody.

OTOH - we ARE dangerously close to April Fools Day...

SCI FI Channel to change name to Syfy

Beginning on July 7th, the SCI FI Channel will be changed to the phonetically identical but grammatically dubious Syfy Channel as part of a bid to give the 16-year-old operation a distinct brand identity and the flexibility to wriggle outside its tight science fiction parameters. In that spirit, it’s also changed its tagline to “Imagine Greater,” all part of a strategy that “invites both consumers and advertisers into a new era of unlimited imagination, exceptional experiences, and greater entertainment.

< whining >Why do people hate science fiction? What did we ever do to them?
< / whining >

Stupid. Simply stupid. The name is stupid. The reasoning is marketing-school stupid and we all know where THAT'S gotten us.

Welcome To The Woooorld of Tomooorrrow

METRO APPROVES HISTORIC CONTRACT TO BUILD MORE LIGHT RAIL/CONSTRUCTION BRINGS JOBS TO HOUSTON :

Date: March 4, 2009

METRO's Board of Directors adopted an historic contract today with Parsons Transportation Group to build four more light-rail lines for Houston.

The contract, worth $1.4645 billion, will create 60,000 jobs before the approximately 20 additional miles of light rail are completed.

"These light rail lines, along with the highly successful Main Street line, will serve as the backbone for a regional system that will serve commuters across the entire Metropolitan area, and across county lines, for generations to come," said METRO Board Chairman David S. Wolff. "We are building not just a better transportation system; we are building a better future for all our citizens"

Apprentice to Darth Holden : "Please, please tell me these rail lines are being built over the dead body of Tom DeLay."


By definition. These projects could never had gone forward if he had anything to say about it. I've long been convinced that he got a cut of the highway money.

The stuff that dreams are made of

Over at Eschaton:

Glenn asked: I have a question give Dr. Black's latest post. If $58 trillion in wealth disappeared last year; if this Seattle institution is out of money, is there any bank, anywhere that's still realistically in the black, in real world, not words on paper, money?

There are times when it sounds like we're all going to return to trading in gold pieces, biting them to see if they're real.
I answered: I'm not an economist, but my guess is - no-one knows. Everyone's waiting for the banks to open their books and declare their assets.

But Master D went way better:

MasterD : The wealth didn't "disappear" - it never existed.

It was believed to exist. Kind of like the Maltese Falcon, which was presumed to be extremely valuable (made of gold, jewels, etc), but had a black coat of paint on it. Everyone thought it was worth a fortune until the paint was scraped off, revealing nothing but lead.

Well, imagine the paint hadn't been scraped and instead the Falcon was used as collateral...

The Maltese Falcon analogy is working better for me all the time.

Of course, you had to have seen The Maltese Falcon for the analogy to work.

Oddly enough, the actual lead Falcon used in the movie, and dropped and dented by Bogart, is worth in the neighborhood of $2 million.